Viktor Töpelmann & Gerhart Darmstadt
Biography Viktor Töpelmann & Gerhart Darmstadt
Viktor Töpelmann
Inspired by the ideal of the enlightened 18th century to live and work in a balanced triad of "hand, heart and mind", Viktor Töpelmann combines instrumental excellence on the viola da gamba and the baroque violoncello, a loving enthusiasm for early music and profound scholarly knowledge of historical performance practice and music-historical contexts of the 17th and 18th centuries. Viktor Töpelmann studied music in London and at the Cologne University of Music. From 2011 to 2015, he was a fellow of King's College Graduate School and was awarded his doctorate in 2016 with a thesis on the cultural environment of the Mozart family in Salzburg.
Gerhart Darmstadt
born in Halle/Saale in 1952, studied cello with Mirko Dorner at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen and historical performing practice with Nikolaus Harnoncourt at the Mozarteum Salzburg; further more, he had baroque cello lessons with Anner Bylsma. His musicological mentor was Walter Blankenburg in Schlüchtern. In 1983 he founded the Barockorchester Hamburg, which he organised and lead until 1991.
Gerhart Darmstadt is one of the leading baroque cellists in Germany. He is well-known as an extraordinary musician and profound expert on the 17th to 19th century, performing widely as soloist, chamber music partner, orchestra- and continuo-player and as conductor. In addition to a flexible instrumental technique and virtuosity he is particularly interested in music as a touching language of the soul and heart and also in the art of the ideal accompaniment. His extensive study of the Arpeggione from Schubert’s time enables him to reach into new sound worlds of deeply personal and intimate character. Communicating with the audience is for him an artistic process of sharing thoughts and feelings.
Gerhart Darmstadt teaches historical performing practice, baroque cello, baroque orchestra and chamber music at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg and singing at the Alfred Schnittke Akademie International, thus fostering contemporary and forward-looking musical interpretation. He is member of the Joseph Martin Kraus-Streichquartett and president of the Internationale Joseph Martin Kraus-Gesellschaft e. V. in Buchen (Odenwald).
Performances and recordings as soloist and with a diverse range of orchestras, numerous courses on historical performing practice, cello, chamber- and orchestral music, lectures on questions of posture, workshops, musicological lectures, concert-introductions, symposia, editions and publications (e. g. on Andante, Arpeggione, Bach, Cantabile, Gabrielli, Kraus, accompaniment of recitatives, Schubert, Schumann, Tempo rubato, Vivaldi) have established his reputation as competent and inspiring interpreter, teacher and scholar, who is continuously re-examining music and its environment.
